The beginning of 2011 saw us butcher or sell each of our remaining hogs as we declared a time out from the hog business. One year and 11 days ago we sold our last hog at the stock sale and also picked up our fresh pork from the two hogs Appalachian Meats had processed for us. That pork, along with the pork from another hog that Matthew had butchered for us at about the same time, lasted us throughout the rest of 2011. Lisa says that we still have some bacon left, but that's all.
Today, Matthew and I went on a pig finding expedition with a couple of Ag teacher friends of mine. There were some Yorkshire piglets for sale waaay over and around and up and down the road near Kimper in Pike County, about an hour and half away from Pure Water Hollow, and we were determined to find them. It seems that pigs have become scarce in our part of the country, and the price for pigs at the stock sales had risen dramatically. We've seen piglets advertised from time to time on Craig's List for $75 and more, which sounds outrageous!
We were pleased to get these Yorkshire piglets for $50 each. The man had 5 for sale so we took all five, 2 for the FFA and 3 for Pure Water Hollow. The 3 that I bought include one small female that will hopefully be a future sow for us, as well as two males that we will butcher late spring or early fall. For the time being, we are keeping all 5 together at the FFA farm until the males all get "cut" next week or the week after during the Ag classes.
I don't have any pictures of our pigs yet, but here is a photo I found on the web of some Yorkshire piglets that look very similar to the ones we got.
As you can see, they are white pigs. Yorkshires are a long bodied meat breed that are known to have excellent mothering qualities. They are supposed to be very good pigs. I think I still would like to see a little color, though. Perhaps we will find a boar with some color to mate with our Yorkshire sow so our future piglets could have some markings.
But anyway, it is exciting to once again be going hog wild!
We've butchered one this year and have another to butcher but we haven't had good weather for butchering! We also acquired 2 young pigs to raise, one to keep and breed and one to butcher next fall/winter. We love our home raised meat. Have you considered trying to butcher yourself? It's hard work but rewarding and saves money on processing cost.Best of luck with your new piggies!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Missy!
ReplyDeleteYes, we have butchered our own hogs, and will be planning to do so with two of these new ones. It was quite monumental for me to finally know that we could do it all ourselves back in January, 2009! We've done 6 or 7 now ourselves and my son, Matthew has really got a good knack for it. We have been greatly blessed!